Rethinking "normal"

As teachers and scholars, we know that we have developed habitual and deeply sedimented ways of approaching composition instruction and scholarship in the course of our professional lived experience. What these essays remind us is that we cannot be content with this "normal" way of operating, that it doesn’t always serve us well or even adequately. As professionals, we need to stop and pay attention precisely because we want to understand our actions and responsibilities as teachers, scholars, and professionals from different perspectives, from other intellectual positions. The scholars in this collection illustrate the value of such an activity and the many benefits of using disability studies as a way of enriching our understanding of composition.